Customer Reviews

The Life and Crimes of Don King: The Shame of Boxing in America

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A superb, meticulously-researched book by an author who truly loves boxing. The career of Don King is well documented here and is as fascinating as you would have imagined. Yet it's more than a biography - an account of how the collective talents of what should have been boxing's Golden Age were squandered through corruption, er...fight engineering (shall we say) and a ratings system based on money not ability. Don King's rise is vividly described - he arrives at a Frazier-Foreman fight with Frazier, but as the fight progresses creeps closer to the Foreman camp and inevitably leaves with the victor. A pattern repeated again and again. The experiences of Tim Witherspoon, Larry Homes and Muhammad Ali make grim yet compelling reading. Finally, we see the Tyson years as yet another athletic talent wasted.
One of the best sports books I have ever read - and deserves a wider readership: So, Amazon, why isn't it available on your UK site?

An excellent look into the dark world of Don King and Boxing in general. The writing is superb and the level of research is obvious. However, the Kindle edition is the worst formatted book I have downloaded since I bought the Kindle. The font size changes paragraph to paragraph and sometimes, sentence to sentence. It is distracting and, ultimately, disappointing that the publisher could not be bothered to put this into a more readable format.

Only in America, it is possible to have a Don King dominating the boxing scene. Newfield describes all the tricks of the trade King is using to his advantage and delivers recommendations what should be done. There is hope that one of these days boxing will be a respectable sport.